7 Employee Engagement Tips for Team Leaders

2

Share | Rate this Article: (3.5 Stars | 17 Votes)   Thanks for your rating!

Employee engagement can be tricky especially during a crisis or major change (which seems to be most of the time, doesn’t it?). What makes it more difficult is that as a team leader you don’t have much discretionary time to spend on morale. You need ways to engage your employees that don’t consume your time. The seven tips of employee engagement listed here take only a few minutes each. Try them. The results are worth your while.

1. Pass it on. Hear something good about someone on your team? Be sure to let him or her know. Receive a complimentary e-mail regarding an employee? Forward it to your manager. Did a customer send a note complimenting your team? Read it at your next meeting. Better yet, invite the customer to join you and your team for lunch, and let them tell your team why they are so valuable. When you hear good news the one thing you never want to do is hoard it. Psst… pass it on!

2. Say good morning. Say good morning to the people on your team. Does this sound too simple to really have any affect on engaging people? Yet it works. It is simple and very effective. People are loyal to, work hard for, and want to be associated with those they have a positive relationship with. So, make eye contact, smile, say good morning and ask a friendly question.

Are you in a different time zone than much of your team? You don’t have to be face to face to be effective. Leave a voicemail before you leave in the evening or before they arrive in the morning. Aim for your greeting to be the first they hear when they check their messages.

3. Set clear expectations. Your team wants to know what you expect. To determine whether they have the information they need to be most productive, ask yourself:

• Have I set measurable team goals?
• Do my team members know how their job fits into the team goals?
• Am I interested in how the job gets done or is results what really matters?

Clarify what you expect because solid expectations create the foundation for a more engaged team.

4. Know what your team is working on. Are you up to date on what your team is doing: roadblocks they’ve stumbled across, resources they need to access to and successes they have achieved? Your team wants to feel connected and part of that connection is having a leader who is aware of project peaks and valleys, supports them as they work towards their goals, and can represent them to those outside of the team.

5. Trust your team. Show that you trust your people, and you demonstrate that you respect them. It is one of the most powerful ways to instill loyalty and boost productivity. You can show that you trust the members of your team by letting them work from home or a have a flexible schedule whenever possible. Trust that they will get the work done, and they will. Your confidence in their abilities will motivate them to achieve more. Trust your team and, in most cases, they will live up to that trust.

6. Cheer team effort. People are motivated by what they achieve and who they are affiliated with. Cheer them on. Recognition reinforces what your team already values. Send out an e-mail and copy your manager. Plan a small celebration and present a team award. Praise the team at your next meeting.

7.Leave an impression at the end of the day. Research shows that what happens last makes the greatest impression; it is what is most memorable. Think about the impression are you leaving your team with at the end of each day. You might try a quick meeting to announce a success, an e-mail update with a note of encouragement or a message by the time clock or coat rack. End the day on a positive note whenever possible.

Motivating and leveraging engagement with your team doesn’t require sophisticated skills or much time. What it does require is consistency, awareness and the desire to keep your team working at the highest possible level.

First published as weekly tips from the Make Their Day subscription service. www.maketheirday.com

Contributor: Cindy Ventrice

Share |

Cindy Ventrice is the author of Make Their Day! Employee Recognition That Works. Her work has been quoted in The New York Times, Harvard Business Update, Workforce Magazine, Entrepreneur, and more. She speaks to managers from around the world on how to create a motivating work environment using employee recognition.

You Should Check Out:

All Aboard: Embarking Employees On the Flight of Their Life

A Workforce Capable to Grow With GE

What Makes the CEO Say "Yes"?

Onboarding or Welcoming People Into Your Homes

Report Abuse   mitch1965 08/10/2010 11:11:42 AM EDT I totally agree with Dick Drummond's comment. I constantly advocate asking employees: "What do you think?" or variations on this question, like: "What do you see as the issue here?" and "What options can you suggest for dealing with it?" etc. The meaning of engagement, for me is involvement, not just involving employees more in solving their own work problems but also in the manager's strategic issues. I think you get engagement when employees feel more ownership for the business as a whole, or at least the direction of their department or team. I suggested this to a manager I was coaching once and he said he could see the point but he added that it wouldn't feel like making a "real" contribution. The problem is that managers identify with their ability to generate their own solutions, this is what gets rewarded, it is what is expected of managers and it is more visible than being a great facilitator. Until the latter style is rewarded, too many managers will continue to promote their own answers. See my article How to Engage Employees for more on this approach: http://www.lead2xl.com/how-to-engage-employees Replies (0) Post a reply Sign in or Sign up to post a comment

Report Abuse   dikedrummond 11/04/2009 3:39:44 PM EST Great stuff Cindy, I would add one more foundational piece here as well. That is "Ask more than you Tell". We have found that a key component of creating engagement is the leader's habit of asking questions rather than telling team members what to do. The habit of asking questions send several powerful signals immediately both consciously and subconsciously: - That I value your input - I trust your experience - That I am open to using the ideas of all team members before making a decision We have found team engagement to be far higher than the leader has the habit of asking questions rather than "telling" or "ordering" team members about. It also found a shortcut to asking powerful questions of your team. Simply start your question with either "what" or "how" and you automatically are asking open-ended question. These types of questionable demand a higher order thinking from your team. My two cents, Dike Dike Drummond MD http://www.superteams.com Replies (0) Post a reply Sign in or Sign up to post a comment